McDonald's Notorious McFlurry Spoons Are No More
While many people have wondered over the years why McDonald's McFlurry spoons are shaped the way they are — hollow with a square hole on top — the answer was surprisingly simple and self-explanatory: The hole attached to the ice cream machine's blending mechanism, creating a spindle that mixed the ice cream and toppings. So, instead of employees having to constantly clean that part of the machine, it simply detached and was served with the McFlurry. This undoubtedly cut down on time, but upon realizing that convenience was creating a great deal of unnecessary single-use plastic, McDonald's has finally announced that it's phasing out the infamous spoons.
According to a press release from October 24, the infamous spoons will be phased out starting this month, and a reusable spindle will be used to mix your McFlurry. The small, black spoons that are currently served with McDonald's sundaes will also be served with the McFlurry. While this may not be a huge change, when you take into account the vast number of McDonald's locations across the country, the smaller spoons and reusable spindles will undoubtedly help reduce the restaurant's plastic waste.
Some countries already use wooden McFlurry spoons
The McDonald's McFlurry is an extremely popular item for the restaurant, despite the fact that its ice cream machines are notoriously always broken. Apparently, they're extremely difficult to clean, and their automated cleaning program runs for four hours — there's even an 11-step manual process that must be completed beforehand (via The Wall Street Journal).
One McDonald's worker shared a photo on Reddit of the new reusable spindle, along with directions for washing, rinsing, and sanitizing them every four hours. They also pointed out that, along with using multiple reusable spindles a day, they're also now required to give customers a plastic spoon wrapped in plastic with each McFlurry. "'Saving the environment' ... come on," they wrote. A separate thread from the McDonald's subreddit was filled with chatter about the new change, with many reporting that other countries already left the hollow spoons behind a while ago, with unhappy results. "Already gone to wooden spoons in Canada. Makes a McFlurry about 30% less enjoyable," one person commented. "[Yeah,] those have also been in Europe for a while. Not properly mixed and eww woody taste," said another.
McDonald's in some parts of the world don't even have ice cream machines, meaning they had no hollow spoons to begin with. If you order a McFlurry in Australia, you'll likely see it mixed by hand, which means most of the toppings just sit on top. With this phaseout, you just might see more unmixed McFlurries.